Yonkers Partners In Education
Wendy R. Nadel, Executive Director
(914) 377-4882

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: December 2, 2008
For More Information Contact: Ellen Cutler Levy
Email: ecutler@ypie.org

Yonkers Partners in Education Launches YonkersReads! Literacy Program

YonkersReads!, a new literacy program launched today by non-profit organization Yonkers Partners in Education, will put thousands of books into the hands of Yonkers elementary school students. Kindergarten through third graders in all 29 Yonkers elementary schools—over 8,500 students in 292 different classrooms—will have access to a wide range of books to read outside of school. Built on the success of the Yonkers Public Schools' existing Parent/Child Book Bag program, students will be given a bag of new books each week, accompanied by bi-lingual instructional materials for parents and caregivers, to bring home, read, and return to the classroom.

Yonkers Partners in Education has already secured over nine thousand books, and new titles are being delivered every day. Businesses and families throughout Westchester are donating books for the program, from Barnes & Noble via the YPIE website, providing an ongoing stream of valuable learning materials. YPIE hopes to engage the public in supporting this literacy program through the purchase of new books.

“By providing books for children to read at home, YPIE is increasing the overall literacy in the Yonkers community and improving its children’s chances for future success,” said Executive Director Wendy Nadel.

A 2007 National Endowment for the Arts study found that students who read for fun nearly every day perform better on reading tests than those who read hardly at all. Access to books is a pivotal factor in ensuring lifelong literacy. Reading out loud to children helps them improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, and the decoding of words, and helps increase their desire to read independently. And, increasing the types of reading materials in the home leads to increased reading proficiency scores.

Yonkers Partners in Education is an education fund that works in partnership with the public and private sectors to ensure that all students attending public school in Yonkers receive a high quality education that prepares them for work, college, and success in life.

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